Lessons, books, and organizers for Visual Writing and Reading Literacy aligned with the Common Core - Grades K-3. BUT MORE THAN THE COMMON CORE!

Text Features and Definitions

It's that time of year for nonfiction; my favorite genre to teach my young scholars! www.visualccl.com (see mini text feature booklet) I have created large and mini nonfiction text feature cards (color-coded) for my groups to use prior to every ELA (English Language Arts) lesson taught for a week or so. Our first lesson was to join as a large group on the rug in a semi-circle, along with our own nonfiction book/magazine. I called out a text feature and we took turns identifying and raising our hands to share the example in our magazines/books, as one child was called at a time to go to the center of the circle and find the large text feature card to match . We discussed the definitions aloud and enjoyed our scavenger hunt for sure. Every day now, table leaders work with their groups to arrange and match the mini cards as quickly as they can while 3 students arrange the same large cards on the rug for fun. Each group leader asked an "I spy" question about a vocabulary word or definition and the kids practiced reading their matches aloud. Every one of my students can match and write their text features and are having fun doing it. I call this "props with a purpose"... You can find this activity at my store, writingbykim.com (mini text feature booklet) Enjoy!